Chapter 589: Death Battle Completed

Before the screen, Lin An remained silent.

He could sense the first ascetic practitioner's despair and unwilling grief.

Despite countless battles against death, no matter what means he employed or what plans he devised, he could not prevent the zombies from returning.

Once, twice, three times, five times, ten times.

This is an endless disaster.

People can't eke out a living; all humanity in the Secret Realm is on the edge of mental breakdown.

Civilization repeatedly withstands disasters; countless moving heroic epics, the stories left by fearless ascetic practitioners, are their only spiritual support that has kept them going.

But people always grow weary.

As the rapidly flashing image froze once more and then began to flow slowly.

Lin An realized this would be the last scene.

So far, blood corpses have not appeared.

Quite the opposite, the ever‑recurring zombie disaster keeps escalating in difficulty.

This scene might be the true origin of the blood‑corpse mystery.

Thirty‑first Act:

"Your Majesty, are you really going to go?"

The ministers knelt on the ground; the royal city, rebuilt over ten times, now reeked of decay and ruin.

The hunched, white‑haired first ascetic practitioner calmly nodded.

He glanced at the child in the well, wondering what he was thinking.

"After I'm gone, you must hold on..."

"Wait..."

After uttering a line no one understood, the first ascetic practitioner strode alone into the corpse tide.

Perhaps the world was playing tricks on him.

After the seventh zombie outbreak, the zombies stopped appearing randomly and instead always spawned at a fixed location out of thin air.

Yet no matter how many heavy troops he stationed there, they were always breached.

It was as if heaven had deliberately arranged it.

He didn't even bother to hide it.

The more he tried to avert the disaster, the more terrifying the next outbreak became.

His strength had hit its limit, and his vitality was drained by the endless battles.

After the eighth zombie crisis, he abandoned the notion of holding that position.

But this time he meant to go and see with his own eyes how the zombies materialized out of thin air.

"Your Majesty! Don't go! You'll die—there are too many undead there!"

His tearful pleas were left behind.

Yet they did not sway his resolve at all.

Outside the screen, Lin An gazed solemnly at the coordinates penned by the first ascetic practitioner, his heart jolted.

641-1921-78...

Those were the coordinates he had found on the blood‑corpse transport ship.

Since the seventh outbreak, have the zombie disasters been fixed to appear there?

Did the first ascetic practitioner's entry cause the zombies to become blood corpses?

He felt unusually tense.

Lin An stared unblinkingly at the stooped old man as he slowly walked out of the royal city.

He calmly fought his way out of the zombie encirclement and stepped into the corpse tide of death.

Even as his fuel ran low and his vitality neared exhaustion.

But as the first ascetic practitioner, his every move unleashed unmatched power.

The corpse tide was ripped apart.

All that could be seen was a dense throng of the corpse tide, dotted with scattered third‑rank mutants, beneath which a technologically advanced construct glowed with an eerie blue light.

At that moment, hordes of zombies were filing out of the technological construct.

What is that!?

Lin An's pupils narrowed as he strained to make out what it was.

However.

The image suddenly accelerated.

The suddenly sped‑up image was nearly too fast for Lin An to react.

Just as the first ascetic practitioner was battling his way into the corpse tide to uncover the secret, the picture jumped again.

Damn!

He couldn't help but curse.

Let me see the crucial point!

As the mastermind behind the zombie source was about to surface, the picture skipped over it, leaving Lin An bewildered.

The image began to decelerate.

In the newly slowed image, the first ascetic practitioner laboriously made his way back to the royal city.

He returned alive.

His eyes were full of grief, and his shaking body was drenched in blood.

After pushing aside the frightened soldiers who were supporting him, he walked back step by step to the prison where the children were held.

"Your Majesty..."

As the spiritual pillar of the entire empire, an immortal legend.

Imperial ministers, when have they ever seen him in such a sorry state?

Feeling the strong deathly aura on the First Ascetic Practitioner, the people's eyes filled with sorrow.

They knew that the Your Majesty who had fought his way back from the corpse tide was going to die.

They, what should they do?

The First Ascetic Practitioner waved his hand, weakly shook his head, and did not answer any of the people's questions.

He alone entered the prison, then trembled as he jumped into the deep pit, and picked up the child.

He saw the light of day again.

Just like the first time, the undead zombie still retained its tenacious "vitality".

It was very hungry.

Holding the infant, the First Ascetic Practitioner's lips twitched, wanting to say something.

In his increasingly dim eyes, a flash of confusion, despair, and a hint of resolve passed.

Amid the crowd's exclamations, he suddenly exerted his last breath and rushed out of the prison.

He raised his head to look at the sky, holding the infant in his arms.

A line of blood tears flowed from the man's eyes.

"Plop"

He trembled as he knelt on the ground, as if pleading for something.

That devout expression seemed to pour forth all his faith.

But nothing unusual happened.

Among the ten thousand in panic, everyone silently watched the invincible, the symbol of the spiritual pillar—the First Ascetic Practitioner—collapsing.

"Your Majesty... what exactly did you see in the corpse tide..."

Fear.

Everyone felt a sense of despair.

After a long while.

The First Ascetic Practitioner looked at the crowd with a half-self-mocking, half-wry smile, his voice hoarse as he said:

"Hold on, wait..."

"\"He\" will not have mercy on us...."

Having said that, the First Ascetic Practitioner without hesitation used the small knife at his waist to cut a piece of flesh from his own arm and stuffed it into the child's mouth.

Like a brief flare before death, the stooped man instantly burst forth with a strong vitality and straightened his body.

The child, starved for too long, smelled the bloody scent, frantically swallowed the piece of meat, and the red in its eyes grew even deeper.

At the same time, the child that had swallowed the flesh also closed its eyes, "content".

Outside the scene, Lin An stared blankly at what was before his eyes.

Isn't this just like the scene in the statues of each fortress?

What exactly does it mean?

Why cut flesh to give to the child!?

What did the First Ascetic Practitioner see in the corpse tide!?

Countless questions surged into his thoughts.

In an instant, the First Ascetic Practitioner who clearly existed in the past vision suddenly turned his head to look at Lin An.

His gaze was calm, carrying a hint of relief and pleading.

He murmured silently in his mouth.

Was he speaking to me across time?

Or is it an illusion!?

Lin An already felt a chill rise in his heart; the rapid succession of events left him unable to ponder what had happened.

"Hum"

The scene cut off abruptly.

The final scene was the man turning into flesh and blood, wrapping the infant.

Blood Corpse appeared.

After a brief moment of loss, Lin An returned once more to the entrance of the initial place.

Drenched in sweat, dazed.

In the final moment as the scene faded, he seemed to finally understand what it was.

Cutting flesh to feed the infant.

And that silent word from the man's mouth was...

In his thoughts, the Savior System panel suddenly flickered, as if responding to the First Ascetic Practitioner's dying words.

"Ding, the death battle mission is completed, the foreign player has died, please claim the highest attribute reward for the death objective after completing the 【Final Battle】 mission】"